


Taking Things Slow

by LoveOneself



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: 'Like What Did I Just Read' Kind of Story, And Torture Her Dadsona, Author Wants To Be A Douche, Casual Flirting, Casual Pinning, Fluff and Angst, Jealousy, Joseph Isn't That Much Of A Good Guy?, Like Why Are You Trying Kind of Thing, Locked Up (Basement), M/M, Possessiveness, Recovery, Redemption, Regular Hangout, Resolving An Unforgivable Wrongdoing, Slight Hint To Cult Ending, Stockholm Syndrome, Unrequited Love, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Warning: F-ed Up Story I Promise You, Yandere Craig, mention of rape, that no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-06 22:57:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11610699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveOneself/pseuds/LoveOneself
Summary: It was finally time to move on with Alex's death. Andrew knew that he had to find someone to help him fill the void that has been empty for so long. Especially when Amanda is heading to college very soon. Andrew seems to be interested in Mat, but Craig doesn't like the idea. At all.





	1. New Home

New Home

__Beep, Beep_ _

 

Andrew begrudgingly opened his eyes to stare at the flashing numbers on his alarm. It was already one o’ clock. He grumbled slightly, turned off his alarm, and rolled over saying “five more minutes…”. Back to sleep, Andrew snored lightly, ignoring someone noisily entering into his bedroom.

 

“Dad, that’s like the fifth alarm to go off. Wake up already!” Amanda yelled.

 

Andrew ignored his daughter and focused on going back to sleep again. He could hear Amanda sighing exaggeratedly in the background.

 

“Dad, come on. We only got one more hour left to finish packing. There’s only one thing left and I think you’ll appreciate seeing it first.” Amanda pleaded.

 

He covered his head with his blanket and poked a hand out to shoo her away.

 

“There’s no point if there’s isn’t any edible sacrifice waiting for me…” Andrew grumbled.

 

“Ha! I knew you would say that! That’s why I made my special chocolate chip pancakes for you.” She sang.

 

Andrew poked his head out, eyes wide open. There wasn’t anything special about Amanda’s pancakes other than the fact she literally dump an unhealthy amount of chocolate chips into the batter. More chocolate chips than batter was an A+ for Andrew considering he absolutely adore it.

 

“Okay, you had me at chocolate chips, honey. I’m getting up right now.”

 

Amanda gave a side smile, shaking her head, and left the room. Andrew lazily sat up on his bed and ran a hand up and down his neck, tiredly. He had a rough night . He spent most of it watching dog videos online and reading about ‘Most Haunted Places - Apartment Version’. Then he unfortunately dreamt about a skunk-demon with Amanda as their tyrant leader. That was a really weird dream.

 

Andrew stood up from his bed and stretched until he heard a satisfying pop from his back. He walked over the bathroom that was connected to the far end of his room. He stopped at the sink with a long mirror that reach from the top of his head to his waist. Anyone would obviously point out that he had a rough night.

 

Heavy dark bags under his brown eyes was a dead giveaway. His shoulder length black hair, usually neat and straight, was sticking out everywhere and he was pretty sure there was a knot behind the back of his head. He glanced down to his body. Andrew, admittedly, was a scrawny man. He looked fit if he could consider himself that, but noticed a slightly growing belly where his former abs were supposed to be. Andrew shrugged his shoulders. He’ll fix that next New Years. Maybe. At least his pale skin was still glowing.

 

“Everyday, Amanda looks more like Alex than me… Probably was his actual kid. That we unknowingly adopted…?”

 

Amanda, his beautiful eighteen year old daughter, grew up what he had hoped her to be. But it had been a hard journey without Alex, his dead husband. Andrew wasn’t too sure if he could do anything better if Alex was around. God, he missed him so much. Andrew wasn’t even sure if Amanda even remember Alex.

 

“Come on, Andrew. Don’t start that again. Your daughter is waiting downstairs with pancakes.”

 

He looked at himself again before stepping into the tub. He had such a baby face.

-0-0-0-

Andrew walked down the stairs and sighed as he looked onward to the field of boxes surrounding his living room and kitchen. He saw Amanda stepping out of the kitchen with a plate of pancakes and orange juice. Andrew smiled.

 

“I swear, I don’t know what I did to deserve a daughter like you.” Andrew said, dramatically.

 

“Just enjoy your breakfast, Dad. I’m gonna grab that thing I want to show you.” Amanda answered, hastily.

 

Andrew settled down on an open spot that boxes didn’t crowded around. Amanda came back to the room with a thin, brown leathery photo album. It looked like it could hold two pages worth of photos. Andrew knew what it was instantly. He was sure that he kept that hidden away somewhere in the attic in a stuffy boxes with some of Alex’s old stuff he couldn’t depart from. He swallowed heavily. Amanda eagerly sat next to her father and opened the album before he could keep it close. She smiled happily at him.

 

“I found this in the attic. I thought we could look back on some of old memories before going to the new house.”

 

Andrew gave a weary smile, but it didn’t stop the aching pain rumbling his stomach. He set aside the pancakes and orange juice, no longer hungry. He took over the album as he pointed out some of the pictures in it. There were five pictures in the first page and two more on the second. He explained some of them. The first four pictures were about Amanda when she was much younger.

 

“You had a sunglasses phase when you were a baby. This was during Halloween when you dressed up as a dragon princess.” Andrew explained.

 

“I remember crying in that costume.”

 

“Yeah, you were scared of dragons. Seeing yourself in it terrified you. You already know about this one.”

 

Andrew was pointing at a photo of Emma R. or was it Emma P.? He wasn’t sure anymore. Amanda laughed as she told him how that day went during their play. It was a pleasant memory. Andrew smiled as he listened to her. He moved on to the next one.

 

“And this is you when you won your first photograph award.”

 

“Ha! I remember going out to McFridays and you throwing up after that day.”

 

“Yeah… Never going back there again…”

 

They moved on to the next one as they laughed on that particular day. The last one caught Andrew unexpectedly. He had hoped that he could delay the inevitable by only talking about the ones with only Amanda in it. His daughter quiet down as she stared down at the same photo that got her father mute, maybe too long. She rest her hands on Andrew which made him just a little in surprise.

 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. I thought you would like to see Father at least once…”

 

Amanda always referred Alex as Father and him Dad. Andrew found the title too formal, too distant. Though, he couldn’t really say anything about it. His daughter only had Alex when she was five.

 

“It’s fine. I’m over it. I just wish your Dad was here sometimes… I miss him sometimes…” Andrew mumbled, quietly.

 

“Dad…”

 

It was a picture of Alex holding Amanda over his shoulder. It was the day they were adopting a child. Alex and Andrew had a hard time since they were recently married at the time and it was out of a whim kind of moment despite having planned it all for years. But Alex was the one that found Amanda. Andrew remembered how his husband picked up the baby and looked him in the eyes with the warmest smile Andrew have ever seen saying, “This is the one. This is our special little girl.” And everything was history.

 

“I would sometimes imagine how proud your Dad would be. After all, he knew you were the one.”

 

“So you’ve told me a few times. I know that I don’t remember much about Father, but I feel like he would like you to move on too, you know. It’s time to be happy, Dad.” Amanda smiled.

 

Andrew stared at her. Amanda pat him on the back as she slowly stood up. She stretched and told him that she was going to wait outside for the movers. Andrew watched her walk off before turning back to the photo album. He flipped over the page. There was two more left. One was just Alex and Andrew during their wedding with one of their friends in the left bottom corner with a wine bottle. Second was still them, but with Amanda just recently adopted in Andrew’s arms.

 

Andrew ran his fingers over the glossy photo and smiled to himself.

 

“Maybe Amanda is right… I will always love you, but… It’s time to move on. Goodbye, Alex.”

 

Andrew closed the album and went back to eating.


	2. Boxes and Casual Looks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the story is progressing really so, but I just want to make sure that you guys get a good handle on what my dadsona looks like for easier imagination and what his personality is like. It'll be boring for a while, but I promise that it'll be worth it. The plus side is that for these update will be really early so you guys might not have to worry about waiting that much...? That's about it.

Andrew had to admit that the pancakes improved his mood by ten percent, but the smile on his daughter was enough to fill in the rest. Amanda rested one of the smaller, lighter box into the U-Haul truck and jumped out. Her arms were high up as she smiled ear to ear.

 

“And she sticks the landing! The crowds goes wild. Amanda Lancaster is the new U-Haul Truck Jumper Champion!” Amanda exclaimed, proudly.

 

Andrew merely chuckled as the two family members entered their silver Camry. Inside, Andrew grumbled at the unsightly scene of a mess piling around. Scrunched up wrappers, empty soda cans, and textbooks of various subjects scattered around them. He looked at Amanda, who gave him a sheepish smile and a shrug, as he raised a brow. She giggled nevertheless as her dad tried to settle down on the driver’s seat.

 

Amanda casually leaned forward and turned on the radio the minute Andrew ignited the engines. Her recently favorite song, Something Just Like This by Chainsmokers and Coldplay, blasted in the car. Andrew rolled his eyes in a teasing manner. Amanda loved this song since it came out a few months ago. There was never a day that went by when she wouldn’t play it along with other stuff in her playlist. Andrew eventually picked up the entire lyrics from hearing it all the time.

 

“Don’t you ever get sick of this song?” He asked.

 

“No! Do __you__  ever get sick of making dad jokes?” She retaliated.

 

She had a point. There was nothing in the world that would make him give up on dad jokes.

 

“Hey! I thought you like my wholesome dad jokes. They’re punny and fan-dad-stic!” Andrew joked.

 

“Ugh, that right there. Stop. Name one time when I ever like those.”

 

“Well, there was that one time—Wait, no… There’s that… Not that either… Uh…”

 

Amanda bursted out laughing while holding her stomach. She, between the uncontrollable laughter, managed to say, ‘I told you so’. Andrew laughed with her as he was unable to contain himself. They eventually calmed down after five minutes of it and watched the U-Haul moving toward the streets. Andrew joined them in hopes to not use any GPS on his phone. He really sucked at driving.

 

“Okay, okay. So, tell me about our new place. What’s the deal?” She inquired.

 

Andrew gave her a quick side glance before comically clearing his voice.

 

“Staring our new home at Maple Bay, it features both washer and dryer installed for your laundry convenience! It also has more room for sleeping for your tired pleasure!” Andrew answered.

 

Amanda pretended to be amazed by saying the occasional ‘oh’ and ‘ah’. She then turned toward the window and watched as various locations change before her eyes. She would point out a place and tell a short story from her memory. It ranged to fond childhood memories to awkward teenage struggles that they both reminisced. Andrew listened to her while he paid attention to the road. It went on for an hour until she agreed to fall asleep for the rest of the ride. Andrew smiled.

* * *

It was an two hour drive until they reached their destination. Amanda, tired, had woken up twenty minutes ago to see some of the buildings they drove passed. Andrew sighed to himself as he safely parked in the driveway. He was just happy that it was over and he didn’t need to drive anymore. The two of them stood in front of the house as the U-Haul trucks parked on the side. Amanda spotted the ‘sold’ sign and gave her dad a knowing smile. Andrew gave her a weak smile.

 

Amanda charged toward it and landed a perfect kick. The sign slid out from the ground with a thump. It perked up her mood and got rid of her tiredness.

 

“I have a problem with authorities!” Amanda exclaimed.

 

Andrew stood next to her again, smiling proudly, as he patted her head in a congratulating manner. He then walked ahead with a silver key in his right hand. He stood in front of the door and rushed to open the door. As expected, inside their new home, it was completely empty and voided of life when he stepped in. Amanda ran her way in without much thought of her surrounding while saying something about calling dibs on the rooms. He chuckled. Andrew went back out to the movers.

Andrew finished most of the unpacking for the living room and the kitchen. Well, that was what he was pretending to be the case. Amanda continued unpacking her stuff after claiming the larger room out of the two. She would pop in and grab a box she would assume to be hers and run back. Andrew sighed as he looked around the tower of boxes again. He was beginning to hate the sight before.

 

“Amanda!” He called out, tiredly.

 

“What?”

 

She poked her head out from the doorway before casually sitting next to her dad on the living room floor.

 

“This calls for a break. I remember seeing a dog park nearby.”

 

“The dog park with lots of dogs? Let’s go there first! Thank you for picking a place that has more dog than human ratio. And expect me to say dog mid conversation too.”

 

“Okay, okay. Just give me a second to get my glasses and earrings.”

 

Andrew had recently been using contacts to avoid wearing his dorky glasses and the struggles that came with it. But it wasn’t as painful than having to poke your eyes before the contact was actually on his eyes. It also gave him a chance to wear his piercings again from his college years. Four plain silver earrings and two small hoops that went over his left ear. He stopped wearing it before because of how his old neighbors kept talking about it behind his back. Something about bad influences.

 

Andrew made use of what he could in their new bathroom that was closed off by a door near the kitchen. He quickly did what he needed to, adjusted his blue jeans and red shirt with a skull on it, and stepped out to his eager daughter. She smiled at him as she quickly looked him over.

 

“You know, you look slightly cooler like that. I never understood why you stopped wearing those.”

 

“Well, you’ll know when you have old people breathing down your neck about your appearance.” Andrew said.

 

Andrew gesture to get up and they both left the house eagerly to meet new people with their dogs. Mostly the dogs.

* * *

 

 


End file.
